The inexorable growth of the Internet in recent times has fostered many new paradigms and new markets for social interaction. In some cases, the Internet has changed the conventional way many people worldwide meet and maintain friends. Today, there are abundant examples of social networking sites and services that aid in forming communities, creating and maintaining personal virtual spaces, managing social circles, personal contacts and communications, content sources and so forth.
Generally, conventional social networking services require a substantial investment in terms of time and effort. Moreover, modern social networking services are designed to encourage persistent relationships and communities. For example, if user A adds user B as a friend or subscribes to user B's weblog (e.g., blog), then the associated state(s) will remain in perpetuity or until user A manually or explicitly removes user B or unsubscribes to the blog. However, many situations exist in which it can be beneficial to form transient, dynamically changing networks or communities, which are not adequately addressed by conventional social networking services or approaches.